Maya's New Husband 2: The Birth of the Death - Neil D' Silva - Book Review

 

                    I have always been a big fan of Stephen King and Shirley Jackson and horror has a huge impact on my reading. In fact, my first ever horror read "Dracula" has a profound impact on me which lingers to date. While I was searching for horror writers in India; some years back, I got introduced to Maya's New Husband and Pisacha by Neil D' Silva. I think that was 3 years back and I was genuinely impressed by both of the books. Now then when I came to know that there is a second part that has come and there is another book that will also be spawned to complete it as a trilogy; I definitely had to read this. A horror trilogy will be a cherry on top of the icing for me.

                    Maya Bhargav is trying to take control of her life back to normalcy after the debacle in Part 1. She lives with her mother Anuradha and sister Narmatha and her baby boy, Abhay. Maya is still not free from the past; frequently seeing Bhaskar almost everywhere she turns. Meanwhile, Mumbai is gripped by some serial killings orchestrated by a cult in the name of upholding traditions and values. A new security guard arrives at the society that Maya resides and tries to get in their good books but doing odd jobs. At the same time, she starts falling for a policeman Dev. The security guard makes a good connection with Abhay. At one point, Maya falls into the hands of the cult. What happens to Maya? Who is the mastermind of the cult? Is there any ulterior motive involving Maya? How does the guard fit in the matrix? forms the rest of the read.

                 I liked the way the read took off; right from start; picking where the first book had ended and slowly building up the setting. That way after the first half, the read was fast-paced. There were more characters than in the first book and the build-up smoothened the read. I am a fan of books that involves a cult and this piqued my interest very well. The language was smooth and easy to read. The underlying message being conveyed was also correlatable to the current happenings which was in fact a good theme upon which the story was built. There is some sort of disbelief when the author takes us to the past of Suryabhan and how he is unaware of the world in spite of some education. The progress of the story to the end was predictable but as I told it was written well enough to keep us engaged. I liked the way the end paved the way to the premise of the third book which I am eagerly waiting for. There is ample gore in the book which some people might feel uncomfortable with.

                The book is fairly engaging and a good read. But I would recommend readers to complete the first book and then read this one so that they can be aware of who Bhaskar Sadachari was and how Maya became the person she is now. There are ample scares and tense moments if you like them and that will keep you engaged throughout.